Message of the Week: Our children will turn out well

Sam Adeyemi

In the scripture above, God was speaking to the Israelites at the border of the Promised Land. The Israelites had been grumbling bitterly against God because they feared greatly for the fate of their children, after they had heard the reports of ten of the twelve leaders who had been sent to spy out the land. The ten men brought a back a bad report about the Promised Land, so their courage faltered. They did not believe that God will take them in and defeat their enemies, as He promised, so they chose to go back to Egypt. Their excuse was that they were concerned for their children but the real reason was their insecurity, fear, lack of capacity for faith and trust in God. This lack of faith and their disobedience angered God, so God said that the complaining parents will not enter the Promised Land but the children, who they feared for, would.

Many people in our country are very much like those Israelites - compromising and breaking God’s laws and the country's laws in an attempt to create platforms for their kids to be successful. God is saying that breaking laws will never guarantee a future for children. Nobody has any control over the future of their children; we are only stewards and caretakers.

It's understandable when most Nigerian parents fear for their children's future because some of us watched our parents serve diligently, loyally, honestly and faithfully until retirement, only to be shabbily treated as a reward in spite of lofty promises of gratuity and pension by the government; while the ones who cut corners, on the other hand, live comfortably and seem to have secured better lives for their children. Turns out that they are the smarter ones, or so it seems. This has pushed some people to dabble into all sorts of fraud, bribery and corruption to get wealth. The spirit of God is saying all of these are houses made of straw. God doesn't need your help, He needs your faith. You cannot steal money to build a future, remember, 'unless the Lord builds a house, the builder builds in vain'.

We must not prepare our children for a future the same as our past, their future will be different. The Nigeria that our children will live in is going to be much better. Anybody who trains his child to cut corners is training that child for a Nigeria that no longer exists. Nigeria is changing at a fast pace, let's commit to preparing our children for the future and God will give us capacity.